Thursday, January 29, 2009

The Ice Storm Came

This is Keely. I'm writing on my mother's behalf, because they are without power and probably will be for some time to come. I live in town and we still don't have power yet, as of Wednesday morning. Mom and the family are okay. They have wood heat, so they've been bored, but plenty warm. She says that they've lost a lot of branches and limbs out of the trees. It's like 1994 all over again.

According to the Kentucky New Era, around 7500 homes lost power out in the county, and about 1500 homes lost power in town. The news said it may be up to a week before power is restored to everyone. Since they live out in the middle of nowhere, it may be about a week before you hear from Mom again.

There's a Red Cross shelter at one of the churches, for people that are without heat due to the power loss. I'm sure they've gotten a lot of takers. I think there is at least one other one, but I'm not sure where. Also, apparently most of the hotels in town have been full since Tuesday when this all started.

Monday night, it rained and sleeted until about a half inch of ice covered everything early Tuesday morning. Most of the people that I've talked to said that they lost power around 4:00 AM on Tuesday. Tuesday it rained all day. It was only barely above freezing, so some of it stuck onto the pre-existing ice. It continued raining into Tuesday night and then it changed over to snow at about 6:00 Wednesday morning. Many of the people who had already had their power restored on Tuesday lost it again, as well as a lot of other people who had previously had power.

Over all, the Hopkinsville area got about a half inch to an inch of ice, and a couple inches of snow. I don't guess that sounds like much to most of the rest of the world, but here it's been a pretty big deal. There are branches and limbs down everywhere you look, and more than a few trees. I lost one in my back yard. Luckily it missed the house and the power lines. Our neighbors also lost one. It missed their house, but it's all tangled up in the power lines.

Yesterday, when I talked to Mom, she said that there was a tree down across the driveway. The neighbor was trying to push it out of the way, but he decided not to when he heard the rest of the trees creaking and groaning like they may follow it down. She's supposed to work today, so I assume that the tree has been moved.

I hope to get our power back on today. We have gas heat, but it's governed by an electric thermostat. No power, no heat. It was pretty chilly in the house last night, but I didn't want to leave the cats. I think I slept with about six blankets on. It's not so bad as long as you're in bed.

I hope everyone else out there is staying safe and warm. Mom should be back to her regularly scheduled blogging soon. I'll let you know if there are any developments in the mean time.

I'll tell Mom if I talk to her today. She worked, so I'm planning on going by there to see her while she's in town. If we still don't have power by tomorrow night, I'm going out there to stay where it's warm.

Thank you for keeping us posted on the area. I grew up in Princeton, but then lived in Cerulean and have enjoyed your mom's blog. But I still have family in Princeton, and they do not have power, water, or cell phones. Some of them have went to Hopkinsville to get fuel and water. So it's good to be informated as to what's going on. Please keep letting us know. Thanks again!

I hear that the entire city of Princeton is without power. Also Madisonville, and several other places. I don't know how I would even begin to start fixing something like that. A friend of mine that works at Walmart says that we have the only one in a fairly large area that's open. All of the other ones lost power in the store and are now out of generator power.

Thanks for keeping us posted! I was wondering how your Mom was doing. We lost power some time in the night Tuesday and it came back on late Wednesday night. We are one of the very fortunate! My sister lives closer to Trigg County and still doesn't have power. Stay safe and warm!

IT IS STILL BEST to be honest and truthful; to make the most of what we have; to be happy with simple pleasure; and to be cheerful and have courage when things go wrong.(Laura Ingalls Wilder, 1867-1957)